Rabbi Joshua ben Levi רבי יהושע בן לוי
sat with the sick whom everyone avoided; entered the Garden of Eden alive
Ketubot relates that he would sit and study together with those afflicted with ra'atan — a disease everyone else kept away from — and explained it by the verse about Torah as "a loving doe."
He is also the hero of the story of the Angel of Death. He had been promised a sight of his place in the Garden of Eden before he died; he took the angel's knife, leapt over the wall — and stayed inside alive. The angel demanded the knife back; a voice from above decided the case in Rabbi Joshua's favour.
His best-known conversation is in Sanhedrin 98a. He met the Messiah at the gates of Rome, among the sufferers: he was changing his bandages one at a time, so as to be ready at any moment. To the question "when will you come, master?" the answer was: today. Rabbi Joshua told Elijah and complained that he had been deceived. Elijah explained: he spoke in the words of the psalm — "today, if you hearken to His voice."
That sentence became the heart of his legacy: the coming is not fixed to a date; it is made to depend on what people do.
On the timeline
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Ketubot 77b — the sufferers of ra'atan; the Angel of Death and entering Eden alive
- Sanhedrin 98a — the Messiah at the gates of Rome and “today, if you hearken to His voice”
Basis: Talmud and midrash.